After the swarm of criticism and negativity that surrounded West Indies’ innings defeat in the first Test against India in Ahmedabad, coach Darren Sammy had called upon his players to fight back. He insisted that the controllables have not been controlled effectively enough and that form with the bat had to improve.

Handed the kind of flat, docile pitch where runs were on offer at the Feroz Shah Kotla ground this week, the Windies charge was blighted by Indian batters’ undisturbed domination in putting up a 515-run total in the first innings and their slip ups in their own first innings. But the fight eventually came, and at the hands of their top-order batters too, by the time they sent India back into bat to chase 120 even though Shubman Gill ’s side looked eager (a tad over-eager) to

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